Couldn't that be argued for any compound lift? I understand the argument; however, the focus of the session isn't on technical proficiency as this does not coincide with my long-term goals. I'm not saying form doesn't matter, it matters in all lifts, but i ask how many technically proficient o'lifts does anyone see in a "metcon" session when the focus is on conditioning, not being a weightlifter

The reasoning we can get away with high-rep deadlifts and not high-rep olys is that deadlifts are much simpler than olys. A deadlift is pretty much grab the bar, set your back, and stand up. Pretty simple, the only way fatigue will make you mess up is if you get too tired/lazy to set your back properly. Even the simplest oly-type lift, the power clean, is much more complicated. As you get tired, you will start shooting your hips up, pulling with your arms, muscling the bar up at the top, etc - tons of bad habits. When you try to do the low-rep stuff, those bad habits will carry over. Technical proficiency may not be one of your goals, but that doesn't mean it can be ignored. And if all you care about is care about is conditioning, you can get conditioned by either doing deadlifts or power cleans, so why do the one that might develop bad habits?

Good points Alex. Perhaps I phrased the nature of my particular session incorrectly. It ended up being 30 Power Cleans (= to my bodyweight of 75kg) in 30 minutes. So it was basically performing a single every minute. Not terribly exausting, but still a great way to add an extra session to my program that would be challenging without impeding on my primary training goals. Since I do a lot of heavy lifting during my other sessions, this is actually a nice break for me while still having the added benefit of improving my general work capacity, or just keep me doing something in between sessions.

I have a friend of mine, who is a coach, watch me train to see if/when form becomes a major issue. I believe the ability to recover and manage fatigue is crucial. If one can recover faster (physically and mentally), high reps of technical lifts have their place. I wouldn't think there's a hard and fast rule against them. Lastly, I think there's the issue of the intensity of the movement. Power cleans equal to my bodyweight isn't very taxing for me, but might be for someone else where everyone's argument against them has more relevance.

My point was not to argue with people on this matter. I used this one time, and may or may not do it again. If it fits with my training goals, and the cost to benefit ratio works in my favor (i.e. risk of injury, overtraining) then it works for me. It may not work for anyone else here but that's why everyone here as individualized programs I'm assuming, not to conform to hard and fast rules but to take those "rules" and see how they apply to you, your goals, at this stage in your training experience.

Gary, yeah, I did. It's where I found out about the challenge in the first place. Amazingly, I feel better than I have in months. 315 isn't a lot of weight for me, but I thought my conditioning would be a factor. It wasn't too bad after I got into it.

last 10 minutes tried to up the pace to doubles every 30 seconds but that didn't work and ended up with
3x2, 6x3 and then a 1x6 to finish right on the buzzer. Used straps for a few sets after I tore a callus and I wore a belt for the whole lot.

Conditioning wise I felt ok until right at the end but my lower back got pretty tight around the 20 minute mark.